1939 Centennial of Baseball

On June 12, 1939, the U.S. Post Office Department issued the first U.S. postage stamp to feature baseball. Released in Cooperstown, New York, the 3-cent violet stamp commemorated the game’s supposed centennial, reflecting the then-popular belief that Abner Doubleday had invented baseball there in 1839. Its release coincided with the opening of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

The Doubleday story has since been discredited. Doubleday was a cadet at West Point in 1839 and never claimed to have invented baseball. The game developed over time from earlier bat-and-ball games rather than through a single inventor.

The stamp depicts boys playing a sandlot baseball game, with a batter at the plate, a pitcher preparing to deliver the ball, and a small-town scene in the background. William Roach of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing designed the stamp and later identified the setting as Milford, Delaware. In a striking coincidence, Milford, New York, is the next town over from Cooperstown and is often included in descriptions of the Cooperstown area. Despite that geographic connection, Roach identified the Delaware town as his setting.

A total of 81,269,600 stamps were issued at 3 cents each, representing a total face value of $2,438,088. The stamp is cataloged as Scott 855.